It is sad to learn that a 54 year old former firefighter had to travel to Switzerland to legally end his life in one of their euthanasia clinics. He was suffering multiple system atrophy which is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no treatment. It is not the sort of death you would wish on your worst enemy.
It was his wish that he could die here in Australia, surrounded by his loved ones but a merciful release for the dieing is either not available in this country or beset by a plethora of strict rules that bar access. In New South Wales the legislation necessary to make it a reality failed - by just one vote.
It is legal in Victoria, but this man could not find two doctors who could say with absolute certainty that he would die naturally within the coming twelve months - and that was a requirement of that state legislation.
What a weird attitude we have to death. It is the one thing which we can all be certain will eventually end our life, but what form the grasp of death will take depends entirely on luck. If we are lucky we may suffer a massive heart attack or stroke and our life be instantly over, or we may suffer an agonising and lingering death in a public hospital bed as some vile disease like cancer slowly ends our life.
The one thing most people hope for - is a painless death. If we fail to take a dog or a cat to the vet for an euthanasia needle we would be prosecuted for cruelty but the doctors and nurses who have that ability at their fingertips are forbidden to deliver mercy. Instead we have what are euphemistically called a " Hospice " where the balance of pain killing drugs administered and the ending of life enters a legal grey area.
The law used to treat death by suicide as a crime. If your attempt failed and you survived you probably faced a magistrate, but today it is quite legal as long as nobody else assists in any way. As a consequence we have people jumping in front of trains or falling from high buildings, or sometimes deliberately driving cars into oncoming traffic. Sometimes desperation makes people put others in danger as they seek relief.
What a strange attitude we have to death. As rational human beings we are entitled to end our lives by our own hand, but the tools we need are selectively locked away out of reach. We are no longer able to easily own a gun, which was a popular means of committing suicide and the drugs that cause a quick death are locked away behind import bans.
We are so obsessed with keeping people alive that we seem to be ready to ban popular entertainment like music festivals because patrons die by taking mood altering drugs to enhance the enjoyment. A single death at a music festival features heavily in the media, and yet every day big numbers of people die in hospital beds from terminal diseases that deliver an unpleasant death.
It is inevitable that a decade or so from now we will be aghast at the attitude that prevails today. Public opinion will deliver a law change and a painless end of life will become within reach of those who wish it to end.
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